Celebrity bout turns into Canseco vs. promoter

(Hiroki Watanabe, Getty…)

March 27, 2011|Dave Hyde, Sun Sentinel Columnist

The tattoos, Jose! You forgot about your tattoos!

They were the first giveaway that made people alert Celebrity Boxing promoter Damon Feldman that Jose Canseco wasn't really Jose Canseco just minutes before a scheduled event at a Hard Rock nightclub on Saturday night.

Instead, it was his clean-armed, identical twin brother, Ozzie, the promoter said.

But it's one thing to roll your eyes at a faux boxing event that fizzled. It's another to hear how the man who brought down baseball with steroid charges allegedly tried to pull off this silly switcheroo.

Allegedly because, Jose sent out on his Twitter account Saturday night: "Be very careful with Damon feldman (sic) who runs celebrity boxing he will not pay you if you fight for him."

So who are you taking in this fight, the celebrity boxing promoter or the breathing human-reality show? Or what about Door No. 3? What if the promoter knew it was the other Canseco showing up and didn't press anything until others noticed?

"No way,'' Feldman said. "I was as surprised as anyone."

The Canseco twins have swapped places for autoraph signings before. But in boxing? Feldman says he paid Jose $5,000 in advance of the fight. That represented half the contracted fee. The other half would be paid at the fight.

Jose missed his flight early Friday night from Los Angeles. But when "Jose" showed up for the Friday night weigh-in, Feldman said he figured all was good. The problems began Saturday night before the fight at Passion nightclub in the Hard Rock.

"The guy I thought was Jose kept asking me to pay him in cash before [the fight],'' Feldman said. "I told him I had to pay him by check for business reasons. He said he needed cash. We went back and forth."

Feldman said he also got a text message before the fight from Jose Canseco's phone that read: "You have to pay him."

"I was confused by why he wrote 'him,' '' Feldman said. "Who would've thought he would've sent someone else?"

Maybe Canseco isn't so dumb. He was knocked out in a bout with former NFL player Vai Sikahema. He lost to a 60-year-old assistant athletic director from the University of Arkansas-Little Rock. He fought to a draw with Danny Bonaduce, for Ali's sake.

Why not see if Ozzie could do better?

Ozzie-as-Jose even signed autographs on Jose's baseball card at the Friday weigh-in, Feldman said. The estimated 400 fans who filled Passion might be upset by this. But these are really fighting issues to memorabilia collectors.

A half-hour before the scheduled bout, here was the scene: Lindsay Lohan's father, Michael, was waiting in Jose's corner. The opponent, trainer Billy Padden, waited in the ring. The music to introduce Jose Canseco began playing. When he didn't show, it played again.

"I still wasn't going to pay cash, and that's when [Ozzie] walked out,'' Feldman said. "About then people began telling me it wasn't really Jose, too. They pointed to the tattoos on his arms.

"I hadn't seen Jose in like 18 months, so I wasn't sure if it was or wasn't until people began saying this stuff."

Again, you didn't know Jose was Ozzie?

"No, and I still can't believe they'd do that,'' Feldman said.

Three other witnesses, including South Florida radio voice Craig Mish, recognized that it wasn't really Jose. Police ended up escorting Ozzie out of Passion.

Feldman said he received a text message from Jose Canseco on Sunday that read: "If you pay my brother the $5,000 I will fight for you again and handle all the media that is calling me and make you look good. If not, well, you're on your own."

Feldman wants the $5,000 he paid Canseco in advance returned. He also wants to know something else.

"I've worked with him before, like I said,'' Feldman said. "Except now I've got to look back at the pictures at the time and look if I ever really met Jose Canseco."